Congratulations to Dr. Mike Ruohoniemi for promotion to full Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering! He and Dr. Jo Baker have built a team of researchers and graduate students in the SuperDARN HF radar lab within Space @ VT. Dr. Ruohoniemi's promotion is official with approval by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors meeting on June 4th, 2018. More information can be found at the official VT News announcement.

Following the March 2018 day trip to Blackstone, it was noticed that about 5 to 6 transmitters were not on or running for various reasons. As time did not allow of any kind of electronics checks during the previous trip, this trip was made by Kevin Sterne and Dr. Mike Ruohoniemi to review and make repairs on the electronics inside of the building. It was hoped that any outdoor work on the antennas could be performed during this trip, but logistics did not allow for making it worth renting a high-lift. In addition, the newly installed wireless hop system would be re-checked to see about improving the connection as it was still experiencing some minor problems despite staying up for the majority of the time.

The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is offering four scholarships for the next academic year to undergraduate students with a career interest in the physical, engineering, or life scientists with an emphasis on space or aerospace-related sciences or engineering.

The awards are available in amounts of $4,000 each, paid directly to receipients. Applicants must be full-time undergraduate students within two years of earning a degree and citizens or lawful Permanent Residents.

Space @ Virginia Tech has been accepted as a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) organization for 2018! This program allows undergraduate and graduate students to propose to work on open source projects that benefit the open source community and the community related to the organization. Project ideas and more information about how to apply to Space@VT's program can be found on the info page on the Space@VT site.

Interested students should begin working on the Google form to send us some introductory info as well as a simple coding task. From there, proposals can start to be submitted to the GSoC website beginning on March 12, 2018 and ending on March 27, 2018. For more information, please e-mail the Space@VT GSoC e-mail: space.vt.gsoc at gmail.com.

Space@VT is excited to be working with the GSoC program for it's first year and very honored to be selected amongst only a few other higher education organizations!

Following an extended period of problems with the network connection to the site, a trip was planned after some new equipment was purchased to replace the aging wireless bridge system. The network connection has been a problem since the site was constructed, and in particular since the installation of new radios in 2011. However, through late 2017 and early 2018, the network connection was mostly down leading to long backlogs of data. To resolve this problem, new antennas, mounting hardware, and Ethernet cable were taken out to the site along with replacement radios that were in the lab. This trip was made while Mike and Kevin were coming back from Wallops Island in the two days prior. Of course, upon arriving to the site, the network connection was working.

After examining the condition of many of the radars, it was determined that a major effort should be put into repairing the antenna array at Wallops Island. This effort also follows work done by Mike and Ethan along with Rob Pfaff to get the grounds around the antenna arrays cleared out and maintained in late 2016 and 2017. During this trip, Mike and Kevin took stock of what exactly needed to be repaired on the antenna arrays and get some order sheets going. With additional time, the RF performance of the transmitters and antennas would be measured to quantify the amount of repairs needed. Dr. Ethan Miller and Dr. Patrick Dandenault from APL joined us for a day to review the antenna array repair project.